1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a retail system and, more particularly, to a device and method for programming an electronic retail system that provides discounts for selected products within a store.
2. Description of Related Art
Discount coupons are a popular means to stimulate sales of products such as grocery store items. In 1992, approximately 310 billion coupons were distributed and 7.7 billion coupons were redeemed, saving customers $4 billion. It has been estimated that in-store couponing coupled with advertising increases sales by 544%.
A typical marketing scheme involves placing coupons in a newspaper, by printing the coupons in the newspaper or by inserting coupon inserts into the newspaper, and allowing customers to bring the printed coupons to a store for redemption. One problem with this scheme is that the redemption rate is typically only a few percent of the coupons printed, the unredeemed coupons representing an overhead associated with this scheme. To alleviate this overhead, another marketing scheme involves distributing the coupons in the store, thereby avoiding the cost of printing coupons in a newspaper, and capitalizing on the fact that 66% of buyer decisions are made at the time of product purchase. Both the in-store scheme and the newspaper scheme, however, are susceptible to fraud by an unscrupulous retailer that requests reimbursement payments by presenting unredeemed coupons to the clearing house. Other schemes include delivering coupons to consumers through the mail, distributing coupons in or on the product package, and distributing coupons at checkout. All of these schemes have an overhead cost of handling the coupons and of sending the redeemed coupons to a clearing house to enable product manufacturers to reimburse retailers for the reduction in proceeds resulting from coupon redemptions.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a convenient and stimulating shopping environment, having relatively low overhead.
To achieve this object of the present invention, there is a method for a system including a plurality of portable cards transported by consumers, each card including a flat substrate, and a memory for storing a plurality of signals corresponding to pricing information for a plurality of products, and a store including a plurality of areas each including a shelf, a plurality of units of a respective product, the plurality of units being on the shelf, the plurality of units having a common symbol different than a symbol of units of another product. The system further includes a plurality of interfaces, each including an interface junction from which signals exit the interface. The method comprises the steps, performed for each interface, of detecting, in the interface, a card in the plurality of cards, at time when the interface is supported by a shelf in a respective one of the plurality of areas and located adjacent to the plurality of units of the respective product such that no units of another product are between the interface and the plurality of units; and sending a respective first signal through the interface junction to the card detected in the previous step, at a time when the interface is supported the shelf and the respective first signal corresponds to pricing information for the product represented by the units adjacent to the interface.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a plurality of portable cards transported by consumers, each card including a flat substrate, and a memory for storing a plurality of signals corresponding to pricing information for a plurality of products, and a store having a plurality of areas each including a shelf, a plurality of units of a respective product, the plurality of units being on the shelf, the plurality of units having a common symbol different than a symbol of units of another product. The system comprises a plurality of interfaces, each interface including an interface junction from which signals exit the interface, a storage device for storing a respective first signal, a detector that detects a card in the plurality of cards, at a time when the interface is supported by a shelf of one of the areas in the store and located adjacent to the plurality of units of the respective product such that no units of another product are between the interface and the plurality of units, and a sender that sends a signal through the interface junction to a card detected by the detector, at a time when the interface is supported by a shelf and the first signal corresponds to pricing information for the product represented by the units adjacent to the interface; and a programmer that programs the storage device of an interface with the respective first signal.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a plurality of portable cards transported by consumers, each card including a flat substrate, and a memory for storing a plurality of signals corresponding to pricing information for a plurality of products, and a store having a plurality of first areas each including a shelf, a plurality of units of a respective product, the plurality of units being on the shelf, the plurality of units having a common symbol different than a symbol of units of another product, and a checkout area, spatially removed from the plurality of first areas. The system comprises a plurality of interfaces, each interface including an interface junction from which signals exit the interface, a storage device for storing a respective first signal, a detector that detects a card in the plurality of cards, at a time when the interface is supported by a shelf of one of the first areas in the store and located adjacent to the plurality of units of the respective product such that no units of another product are between the interface and the plurality of units, and a sender that sends a signal through the interface junction to a card detected by the detector, at a time when the interface is supported by a shelf and the first signal corresponds to pricing information for the product represented by the units adjacent to the interface; a programmer that programs the storage device of an interface with the respective first signal; and the following elements, located in the checkout area: a receiver for receiving signals corresponding to pricing information from the memory of the card, in the plurality of cards; an electromagnetic detector for generating a second signal corresponding to a product; a receiver for receiving the second signal; and a price determiner for determining a price depending on whether the second signal corresponds to one of the received signals corresponding to pricing information.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a store and a plurality of portable cards transported by consumers, each card including a flat substrate, and a memory for storing a plurality of signals corresponding to pricing information for a plurality of products. The store includes a plurality of areas each including a shelf, a plurality of units of a respective product, the plurality of units being on the shelf, the plurality of units having a common symbol different than a symbol of units of another product. The system comprises a plurality of interfaces, each including an interface junction from which signals exit the interface, means for holding a respective first signal, means for detecting a card in the plurality of cards, at time when the interface is supported by a shelf in one of the plurality of areas and located adjacent to the plurality of units of the respective product such that no units of another product are between the interface and the plurality of units, and means for sending the stored first signal through the interface junction to the card detected in the previous step, at a time when the interface is supported the shelf and the respective first signal corresponds to pricing information for the product represented by the units adjacent to the interface; means for programming the holding means of an interface with the respective first signal.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a system of operating with a store and a plurality of portable cards transported by consumers, each card including a flat substrate, and a memory for storing a plurality of signals corresponding to pricing information for a plurality of products. The store includes a plurality of first areas each including a shelf, a plurality of units of a respective product, the plurality of units being on the shelf, the plurality of units having a common symbol different than a symbol of units of another product, a checkout
To achieve this object of the present invention, there is a method for a system including a plurality of portable cards transported by consumers, each card including a flat substrate, and a memory for storing a plurality of signals corresponding to pricing information for a plurality of products, and a store including a plurality of areas each including a shelf, a plurality of units of a respective product, the plurality of units being on the shelf, the plurality of units having a common symbol different than a symbol of units of another product. The system further includes area including an electromagnetic detector, spatially removed from the plurality of first areas. The system comprises a plurality of interfaces, each including an interface junction from which signals exit the interface, means for holding a respective first signal, means for detecting a card in the plurality of cards, at time when the interface is supported by a shelf in one of the plurality of areas and located adjacent to the plurality of units of the respective product such that no units of another product are between the interface and the plurality of units, and means for sending the stored first signal through the interface junction to the card detected in the previous step, at a time when the interface is supported the shelf and the respective first signal corresponds to pricing information for the product represented by the units adjacent to the interface; means for programming the holding means of an interface with the respective first signal, means for receiving, in a computer, signals corresponding to pricing information from the memory of the card, in the plurality of cards, carried to the checkout area; means for generating, in the electromagnetic detector, a second signal corresponding to a product; means for receiving, in the computer, the second signal; and a price determiner for determining a price depending on whether the second signal corresponds to one of the received signals corresponding to pricing information.